Consumer advocate Warren to decide Senate run soon

Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren has hired Gov. Deval Patrick’s campaign architect Doug Rubin and is reaching out to other top Democrats as she explores a possible run against U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.

Warren, who served as President Obama’s top consumer protection adviser until last month, will be assisted by Rubin’s Northwind Strategies and expects to make a formal announcement of her plans by Labor Day, a source close to Warren said.

Warren, who has been wooed by national Democrats to take on the well-funded Brown, declined to comment but posted a lengthy missive on the lefty blog BlueMassGroup.com yesterday that resembled a campaign roll-out speech.

I left Washington, but I don’t plan to stop fighting for middle-class families,” she wrote in a post that begins with stories about a hardscrabble American upbringing and her “Aunt Bert” and “Aunt Bee.”

“I spent years working against special interests and have the battle scars to show it — and I have no intention of stopping now,” Warren wrote, telling readers, “I’m looking forward to discussing with you what we can accomplish together.

Up until a few weeks ago Warren had been setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the Obama administration.

Warren conceived the idea for the bureau, which was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law.

Warren has earned a high profile from her time in Washington and is a hero to many liberals for her outspoken criticism of Wall Street in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

Many Democrats had pushed President Obama to nominate her to be the agency's first director. He instead chose former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for the job, disappointing liberals.

Democrats have since been urging Warren to remain on the national stage and run against Brown in the 2012 Senate race.

"In the weeks ahead, I want to hear from you about the challenges we face and how we get our economy growing again," Warren said in her blog post. "I also want to hear your ideas about how we can fix what all of us -- regardless of party -- know is a badly broken political system."

Kyle Sulilvan, a former spokesman for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Doug Rubin, who ran two of Patrick's campaigns, are working with Warren as she mulls a run.

Brown burst onto the national political scene in 2010 when he won the race to replace Senator Edward Kennedy who died of a brain tumor in August 2009.

Since then, Brown has leveraged his high national profile into a large campaign warchest.

Warren's popularity with liberals would likely help Warren raise the funding needed to take on Brown.